Des Houghton: Integrity smokescreens hiding mistakes of Premier’s cronies

Annastacia Palaszczuk and her cabinet cronies succeeded in distracting the media from the serious arm wrestle with the Crime and Corruption Commission that goes to the heart of government integrity, or a lack of it, writes Des Houghton. Have your say.

I sensed an air of desperation in the Queensland political playhouse this week. Annastacia Palaszczuk and her cabinet cronies busily created smokescreens to hide their mistakes.

The ministers partly succeeded in distracting the media from the serious arm wrestle between the State Government and the Crime and Corruption Commission that goes to the heart of government integrity, or a lack of it.

Spin doctors were busily rephrasing old press releases about renewables and roads and grand schemes like the $7.1bn train building program already announced years ago.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles escaped deep scrutiny when he rejected assertions the work of trade ­unions was “inappropriate lobbying” after the state’s corruption watchdog called for union officials to be classed as lobbyists.

The CCC recommended in-house lobbyists as well as unionists and “other interest groups” declare any contact with the government when they seek to influence policy or law changes. Fair enough.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

A number of royal commissions have pointed to corrupt conduct by union officials in this country.

Details of rorting, violence and intimidation by unions – including some that fund the ALP – are regularly aired by state and federal parliaments and the courts.

So I could argue that Miles and Palaszczuk and every Labor member in Parliament has a vested interest in keeping a lid on any news about union contact and lobbying. Here I stress I am not against lobbyists per se. Politicians exist to be pressured, but I think voters have a right to know how they arrived at their decisions.

Any improper, closed-door sweetheart deals between the Palaszczuk government and unions will not be exposed if the CCC transparency recommendation is not endorsed.

If there is nothing to hide, the government must overrule Miles and agree to transparency just as Peter Coaldrake recommended in his damning report into the government’s secrecy and lack of accountability.

By flatly rejecting the CCC recommendation Steven Miles spat in the eyes of the crime commissioners. And he got away with it.

Queensland needs the antiseptic of public disclosure more than ever.

Rapists and murderers walk free because of repeated bungles – and sheer neglect – in DNA testing in the State Government forensic science lab.

Any improper, closed-door sweetheart deals between the Palaszczuk government and unions will not be exposed if the CCC transparency recommendation is not endorsed. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)

Meanwhile, allegations of criminal activity like money laundering blackened the reputation of Star Entertainment casinos in Queensland and point to failures at the Office of Liquor and Gaming.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman made the Gotterson inquiry terms of reference so narrow that links between the Palaszczuk Government, Labor lobbyists, unions and casinos were not able to be examined. The CCC needs to keep digging or it risks becoming an irrelevance.

Ousted State Archivist Mike Summerell got it right when he described the Queensland Government as “toxic” when he exposed how Parliament was misled and annual reports falsified to hide “bad news”.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Former Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov had her staff slashed to one person who had no legal training while she was investigating alleged illegal lobbying. Her computer system was so old it lacked the capacity to update files relating to lobbying. Stepanov’s laptop was seized from her office and the contents “deleted without my knowledge or consent”, she told a Parliamentary hearing.

Other serious matters that remain unresolved.